TIRUMALA: All the pilgrims to the shrine of Lord Venkateswara at Tirumala will soon be getting one laddu weighing 100 gm as prasadam free when they exit from the temple. Earlier, this facility was available only to VVIPs and trekkers to the temple, while ordinary pilgrims had to purchase the laddus. This was one of the key decisions taken by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), here Monday.
“The foundation stone for construction of the Thousand-Pillar Mandapam at Tirumala will be laid by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu,” said Chadalavada Krishna Murthy, TTD chairman, disclosing the decisions taken at the Trust Board meeting. Murthy said 7,000 people can be accommodated in the mandapam as per the present design and some changes are required. Murthy said `300 tickets will be sold through current booking both at Tirumala and Tirupati after the conclusion of Brahmotsavams. “We are contemplating introducing a new system for laddu distribution and sale. Each pilgrim will get one laddu weighing 100 gm as prasadam free of cost and more laddus will be sold,” he said.
The board has advised the TTD to prepare a procurement policy for the purchase of all its requirements, including food ingredients. TTD EO D Sambasiva Rao, trust board members Kolla Lalitha Kumari, Pilli Anantha Lakshmi, Dolla Sree Bala Veeranjaneya, Putta Sudhakar Yadav, Gyanni Sayanna, A V Ramana, P Hariprasad, J Sekhar, Suchithra Ella, DP Anantha, Sampath Ram Narayanan, G Bhanu Prakash Reddy, Vaidyanathan Krishnamoorthy and K Raghavendra Rao and JSV Prasad attended the meet.